


Reverie

by xaritomene



Category: Bandom, Jonas Brothers, The Academy Is...
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 05:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1332904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaritomene/pseuds/xaritomene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike’s arm is wrapped around his waist, his face buried in the crook of Kevin’s shoulder, and Kevin feels an uncontrollable wave of fondness for him, tenderness, almost, if Mike was the kind of guy who inspired tenderness. He isn’t, but Kevin is definitely the sort of guy who feels it, so Mike will just have to deal with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reverie

It’s early enough that the light still looks new and the world outside their window is very quiet. By all rights, Kevin shouldn’t even be awake right now – he doesn’t have to be up for another hour or so – but he kind of likes not wasting what little time they have together sleeping.

Mike’s arm is wrapped around his waist, his face buried in the crook of Kevin’s shoulder, and Kevin feels an uncontrollable wave of fondness for him, tenderness, almost, if Mike was the kind of guy who inspired tenderness. He isn’t, but Kevin is definitely the sort of guy who feels it, so Mike will just have to deal with it. (Kevin suspects Mike will be absolutely fine with it.)

Kevin lets his hand fit over Mike’s, threading their fingers together carefully so as not to wake him. Mike sleeps like the dead, but The Academy leaves on tour tomorrow, and although Kevin wants to wake Mike and make the most of what little time they had together, he knows sleep is going to be a commodity on their tour bus. Best for Mike to sleep in while he can.

It’s comfortable anyway, just lying there, Mike wrapped round him, staring out at what markets itself as their back garden, though to be strictly accurate it’s just a slab of concrete with some half-dead plants in pots. Kevin’s been meaning to do something with it for months, but he’s never gotten round to it. (He probably never will.) Mike is warm at his back, relaxed in sleep, and Kevin smiles to himself – this is perfect. This is why he’ll never regret the shit-storm it took to get them here.

When he left the Jonas Brothers officially, leaving the band (such as it was) and quitting JONAS, everyone acted like it was the end of the world; his parents, Disney, their manager, even Nick. It was like being bombarded on all sides by every last reason why it was a bad idea. What was he going to do with his life, was he going to do _anything_ with his life, how could he leave his brothers in the lurch like this, didn’t he know what this would do to them as a family, to Nick’s career, to Joe’s career, to his own... the list went on and on and on, and it never seemed to stop.

It was Joe who rang Mike, Kevin’s impromptu boyfriend of maybe a month, handed Kevin the phone, and went off to continue the fight with their parents in Kevin’s absence.

Kevin had been a mess, and to his credit, Mike hadn’t so much as hesitated. “Is it what you want?” he’d asked, and Kevin had nodded before realising Mike couldn’t see it.

“I – yes. I mean, I can’t – I’m always going to be Kevin Jonas, in shitty magazines and whatever. But I’m twenty three, I can’t – I mean, at least this way, I don’t have to dress up in a school uniform every day and I can just fade away gracefully and not – not become some mess in the public eye all the time.” He took a deep breath. He had never put it all out there quite like that before. Not without endless interruptions and arguments.

Mike hummed down the phone. “You’re sure it’s not just ‘cos you’re scared?” he’d asked carefully. “You’re not gonna regret it further down the line?”

“Maybe,” Kevin had said, and it had been the first time he’d let himself be honest about it. “But I don’t enjoy it anymore. I know it’s – ungrateful, or something, to be whining about what’s pretty much the best job in the world, but I just don’t enjoy it.”

Mike makes another agreeing noise down the phone. “Don’t burn any bridges then,” he said sensibly. “But if you gotta get out before you burn out, fine.”

“Yeah,” Kevin whispered. ‘Burn out’ – that was exactly it.

“Hey, it’s OK, you know that, right? I mean, I guess no one’s exactly falling over themselves to tell you that, but it’s OK. It happens. And you couldn’t keep dressing up as a school kid forever, that shit was gonna get creepy after a while.”

They’d only been together a month – in the most desultory way possible, too, since Mike was busy and Kevin was terrified of anyone ever finding out about them – but Kevin had never wanted someone there so strongly as he suddenly wanted Mike. “Yeah,” he manages again, and oh god, he’s totally gonna cry in a minute. “Yeah, no – I know, that’s...that’s kind of it.”

“It really is OK, Kev,” Mike had assured him, and there had been something in his voice which had all-but brought a lump to Kevin’s throat. “I’ve talked Bill off enough ledges, this is nothing – I mean, I know it’s not nothing for you, but if it’s the right thing for you to do, then you’ve just gotta get past the shitty bit and wait for the good stuff.”

Sound advice, it turned out, and two years later, Kevin can’t bring himself to regret it. Nick’s making music still, and Joe is starring in a succession of movies, each worse than the last (and Joe knows it, which just makes it better). Kevin has a record label. It’s slow going, and it’s taken a fair chunk of his JoBro’s capital, but it’s working with music and working with musicians and he loves it. He loves it in a way he never loved JONAS or being a Jonas Brother (capital B – he loves his brothers something fierce). He loves the way he goes into a store now and gets a quick ‘hang on, that’s – oh, well, whatever’ glance, rather than screaming girls all over him. He loves being able set his own hours in a way he never could before and he loves being able to see Mike whenever and not have anyone freak out over whether or not the readers of _CosmoGirl_ will have a collective aneurism if they see him with a guy.

And he loves Mike, too. Two years, plenty of fights, plenty of make-up sex and plenty of good times, and he loves him. He’ll miss him tomorrow when he’s gone, but for the moment he’s here, and life is excellent.

Kevin squeezes his hand again gently, and feels Mike wake up, stretching against Kevin’s back and pressing an absent kiss to his shoulder.

“Good morning,” Kevin tells him, and it is.


End file.
